Restless Heart: 10 – “Praying with the Church”

Liturgy of the Hours

In this week’s episode, Nessa and I talk about one of the most essential of Christian activities, prayer. In particular, we will be talking about the Liturgy of the Hours, which is part of the formal prayer of the Church and prayed by monks and nuns throughout the world

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Episode 10: Praying with the Church (Download)

 

— Show Notes —

* At the beginning of the show I talked about my trip to Medieval Times. If you like watching jousting, give it a visit!

* Nessa and I briefly spoke about Novenas. My favourite is this one to Pierre Giorgio Frassati. If you’d like to explore more Novenas, check out Devin Rose’s app.

* I shared the Latin phrase “Quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur” which means “Anything said in Latin sounds profound”.

* The different Hours in the Liturgy of the Hours are: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. The Second Vatican Council reformed this.

* The Liturgy of the Hours grew out of Judaism: Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws” – Psalm 119:164

* I believe that the various Hobbit meals from the Lord of the Rings comes from the Liturgy of the Hours.

* Nessa mentioned the different Rites of the Catholic Church. We will do a future episode on this topic in the future, but if you would like to know more, I describe my initial visit to a Byzantine Rite parish here.

* The book used to pray the Liturgy of the Hours is known as a breviary. You can buy the multi-volume set, but I would personally recommend getting The Shorter Christian Prayer Book.

* If you would like help praying the Liturgy of the Hours, I would recommend the website Universalis. For your cell phone, I would recommend the Laudate app, but especially the iBrievery. If you would like to listen to the prayers being prayed, check out the podcast Praystation Portable by SQPN. However, the most important suggestion when starting is to pray it with a friend!

* When prayed in groups, the Liturgy of the Hours has an antiphonal form, a back-and-forth, a call-and-response between the two groups.

* The winner of the devotional book Jackie and Bobbie Angel was @GreekCatholicSD.